Care leavers’ transitions to independence

Well, when I finish uni I’ll be a qualified nurse, so hopefully I’ll get a job as a nurse. And yeah, I’ll just, I don’t know, live life being a nurse.

OK. Or do you have a... do you have, like, a speciality right now in nursing or...?

I’m doing children’s, but I don’t know what area of children’s I will go into.

So, for me, like my end goal is I would love to go into radio and have my own radio show for like one of the major like radio stations and stuff.

Uh-huh.

But like when I do leave fully, for me, it’ll be working my way up the ladder: so, volunteering, and then eventually paid work ’cause I don’t... for me personally, because of the way it would detrimentally impact my situation, because of all the things that’s led up to the present time, university would be a nightmare. It... I wouldn’t even get through the first term, it’s that bad. So, for me, higher education just wouldn’t be an option, so it’s just look for work and gain experience.

So, for me, I’m currently looking at the moment, and for me I would start with like volunteering for like a local charity, a local high street charity, and then just gain experience through that.

I’ve got my diploma coming up with my internship on the [date] – I need to pass that. I’d like to go into health and social and get my qualification to work in care home. I’d like to join the leaving care team as an intensive support worker, to support care leavers. I’d like to go to Parliament and change the protected characteristics for care leavers legally. I would like to push to become some type of motivational speaker alongside my peers, peer care leavers to make changes nationally for care leavers. And to bring my daughter up to try and be in a happier world, and bring her up to have the independence and strength that I learnt the hard way without having to do any of that.

Ninna: Mm, I would like to probably work on my independence about going to different places, so like going out with friends by myself without [shared lives carer], or other carers, and go to the gym by myself at some point if I get a bike,—

Carer: Mm.

Ninna: —and stuff like that, you know? Taking the bus, meet friends alone, so I think like that could be... but I think we’re doing that... we’re starting to do that already, so.

Carer: Mm…. and then there’s lots of things that you want to achieve like for work and—

Ninna: Oh, yeah, yeah, work, work.

Carer: —learning and things.

Ninna: Yeah.

Carer: You’ve got lots of... you’re very ambitious.—

Ninna: Yeah, yeah.

Carer: Do you want to tell her a bit about some of them?

Ninna: Yes. Which one?

Carer: Well, you want to... you’re  like... interested in acting.

Ninna: Yeah, yeah.

Carer: So...

Ninna: I’ve got into an acting programme in the summer, shall we chat about that?

Oh, OK.

Carer: The [theatre group] theatre’s summer course, which is very, very hard to get on and she got a place all on her own merit.

Ninna: Yeah.

Carer: You’re interested in—

Ninna: Work experience.

Carer: —work experience. And what kind of things were you looking at?

Ninna: Coaching for sports and kids, and animal rescue.

My goal right now is just get out of shared accommodation and get my own place, and have stable work where I can actually stay there. ’cause like, so with my housing situation now, it’s hard to work, so I’m focusing on getting out of here first,  then like to get my own place on the housing register, then start working. Because...  if I do it the other way round, if I go in full time employment, I’d have, probably like... if I gave in my notice, they’d give me 30 days to be out, so then I’d have just like 30 days, then move out and find somewhere else, which isn’t ideal. If I only just started a job, it’s not like I’m gonna have the income to back myself going privately, so it’s just not ideal, so I’m just... my only option, really, is to go on the housing register and start bidding for properties.

Definitely go back to [Town], like I’m gonna start bidding soon, I’m gonna start bidding there as well. That’s just where I wanna be, that’s... and I’m travelling there multiple times a month just to go and see friends and stuff like that, so I might as well just be there and like I’ve got no friends here at all. I don’t see anyone. I don’t do anything. The only things I do is what I’ve told you already with these companies.

Mm.

In terms of like socialising, and when I’m home I don’t have nothing like that, I don’t socialise or nothing. I mean any socialising I do is when I’ve got money for the bus fare, then go see friends, and if I haven’t got the money, I’m just stuck on my own.

I think a lot of goal reaching is definitely self-motivated for everyone. I’ve been the kinda kid when I was, like, 10, telling the world how I was going to go to uni. Huh, I was an enthusiastic kid, so that never really went away. I mean, I made sure I picked the right subjects, and everything, for the course I wanted to do and I’ve always discussed, like, my goals, and whatever, with the people around me.

I am looking forward to just going into uni and just having that kind of independence back.

I just, I want a job that will pay enough to give me financial security because it’s something I’ve never had, because obviously growing up in my conditions I… yeah, I’ve never had that security. So that’s something I crave. It’s not so much the money, it is just… I just wanna be secure, like financially secure. I feel like you just need that, you need that foundation to really then build upon. Because I’m very much at this stage in my life now… I am [age] like I’m… you know, I’m looking for love,  find the person to spend the rest of my life with. But, it’s almost like I can’t do any of that until I have a, a foundation like financial security. So, that’s really my next step. That I just want a job that’ll give me that, really, because it’s something that I worry about a lot, because so much of our wealth is passed down through family. But I’m not gonna inherit a house, or anything. So, it’s really up to me to give myself that security. But that’s not easy, because it’s like you need a job that will enable you to save money for a deposit, and then, yeah. And with the job market at the moment, that’s just not easy at all. It’s really competitive.

So, my future at the moment is that I’m looking into setting up my own business. I’ve been looking at business studies in depth, and that’s like kind of the career path I wanna go down now. So, I’m... yeah, I’m in the process of researching what the best routes are. And yeah, that’s my... that’ll be my next steps.

OK. And so are you consulting with anyone about that, or are you doing that on your own?

Yeah. So, I’m part of the [Name of] Trust in the UK. And then also with... in the position that I am with [organisation], I get to have general conversations with like CEOs, and other CEOs and how they went about setting up their own businesses, which is really valuable information to myself.

I’d like to... I’m not sure specifically. I... my passion is poetry, so if I can figure out how to publish my poetry, that would be amazing; however, I’m not going to pursue it in education the way that I thought I would because I feel like... or... or through employment, because I feel like it would take away that passion for me. So, I’d like... I’m actually already speaking to somebody to try and publish my poetry, of which a lot of it contains... or is about my care... my care experience, so that’s gonna be rather a unique thing, I feel. But other than that, I’m going to university for [course name], so I’d like to be an agronomist or work in like soil science, basically, and I know that the environmental science job sector is increasing, so I’m hoping that it’s gonna be quite a good thing when I come out of university. So that’s my... that’s my hope. But equally I’ve chosen a degree in which whatever job I can get with that degree, once I come out of it, I’d be pretty happy with. I love languages as well, and I do Spanish A‑level. I’m gonna do modules with my course in a way that will actually add to my course at the end of it, so it’ll be [course name] with additional Spanish. So, I could even go to Spain and teach English, or I’d hopefully like to implement that into my job at some point. So, if I can... ideally, I’d like to have a job where I can involve environmental issues in other countries and be able to travel as well, that’ll be my ideal job, so I can’t magic it out of thin air, but fingers crossed I’ll find something like that.

When I feel I went and I start planning for the future, I feel like I’m not sure.

And I was feeling like er when I just plan: ‘yeah, I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to do that,’ but I can’t do that because I don’t have the right like the government and the paper and I was not sure about: where am I staying; is this my future; do I have... am I going to stay here? So that really challenge me.

OK, yeah. So, is there some kind of support for people who are like you but still in... like maybe they’re in care and they’re going to apply for Right to Remain? Is there something that they should have, or that they should know, now that you’ve gone through,—

Yeah, yeah.

—is there anything?

I think if they... they will give you a decision after interview, I think especially when you are like in a care leaver, or anything, for these people, if they give you like, make it like quicker process of the interview and give them the decision quickly because it will make you like... because this stage is you decide for the future, just like a foundation for tomorrow, or for your future.

So, to know about your future, just like the main thing.

So, if we know this, it will be better, like it will give you more chance to plan.

I really... sometimes I really stress out and I can’t... there is no solution, or there is no solution I can do, my peers or someone can’t help me with. All I’m doing is worrying about that: ‘what will happen tomorrow, what if they reject me, what if they say no?’

So...

Ok, yeah, I mean every day it feels like it can be a struggle because you worry about it?

Yeah.

OK.

Even when you want to work volunteer, for example, I ask to work with children, because I like children, you still need that paper, and you still need like was that, DBS?

Oh, DBS, yeah, they have to check your background.

Uh-huh. For that you need the paper and the passport that can tell about you.

OK. So, you can’t volunteer until you can be DBS checked, which then you need Right to Remain in order to do that.

So, then you can’t work.

OK. Well, I’m hoping to be able to get out of bed without rolling myself out of bed – that’d be brilliant – but obviously, at the moment it’s just the case of: I... I don’t really pay attention to what I need to do in the future; I pay attention to what needs to be done here and now, because if I worry about the future, I’ll lose track of what today is, and I’ll lose track of what I need to do today. So, tomorrow’s issue is tomorrow’s; today’s issue, is today.

I mean in terms of living: I have no idea. ’cause obviously the council, their main kind of thing is getting you into like a flat or something, that’s what Housing try to do, but I don’t know if that’s gonna be appropriate without support from adult social care. Because of the level of hours of support that I have needed in the past, it’s more likely that they’d go down a supported living route, but that takes months, so I don’t really know what’s gonna happen with my housing and I worry that I’m gonna get shoved in a flat without the support that I need, and things. I’m currently in a studio flat without the support that I need, so...